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“She rejected you?”

Jiang Yanqing’s voice rose straight to the ceiling of the private room, full of disbelief.

Shao Cixin rejected Wen Zhihan?

No, when did she confess her love? Why didn’t he know?

After being away for so long, did he miss something important?!

Xu Zhouzhou patted his shoulder and told him to calm down.

Wen Zhihan was unruffled by the loud outburst. She silently drank the coffee in her hand, her eyebrows gentle and calm.

Since Wen Zhihan had nothing to do that day, she and Xu Zhouzhou made plans to go out for coffee. She saw it as a good opportunity to catch up with friends after not seeing each other for a long time.

Jiang Yanqing was curious about the progress of Wen Zhihan’s relationship with Shao Cixin, so he kept encouraging her to confess, only to be told such explosive news.

At least Jiang Yanqing thought it was very explosive.

After all, this was Wen Zhihan.

When he was in high school, he only saw Wen Zhihan rejecting people, never Wen Zhihan being rejected.

She hid it so well, no wonder she refused to confess to Shao Cixin!

“What happened, what happened?” Jiang Yanqing’s curiosity was piqued. “Hurry up and tell me!”

When Xu Zhouzhou heard this, she pinched his waist. “Be good. Don’t show interest in picking up a kettle that isn’t boiling^[1].”

Jiang Yanqing contorted his body in pain, “I’m concerned about my friends—Ow, ow, wife, please be gentle—”

Xu Zhouzhou let go of Jiang Yanqing and began rubbing his waist for him.

Wen Zhihan’s expression was soft. Not only was she used to seeing this couple acting rowdy, but she even enjoyed it.

Putting down the coffee, she said warmly, “There’s nothing that can’t be said.”

Jiang Yanqing immediately focused all his attention on Wen Zhihan.

He even thoughtfully pushed a plate of dessert in front of her. “Come on, President Wen, let’s talk after you’re full. Then you’ll be at your full strength.”

Wen Zhihan lowered her eyes and curled her lips into a smile, not reaching for the dessert.

The incident happened when she was still in high school.

At that time, she was still a member of the Disciplinary Committee, and she had a book in her hand to record the names of the students who violated the school rules.

This book was issued by the school administration to the Disciplinary Committee. The school didn’t need to collect it, and the members were free to dispose of it however they wanted, as long as they submitted a list of names to the school’s Political and Educational Affairs Office every week.

As a result, Wen Zhihan would sometimes use the notebook as scrap paper to work out equations, write chemical formulas, and copy down English sentences…

After she confirmed that she liked Shao Cixin, she was often absent-minded and impulsively thinking about her feelings.

At the time, same-sex marriage had not yet been legalized, and Wen Zhihan never thought that she would like another woman, so she was trapped in a complex state of conflict, struggle, and confusion.

Wen Zhihan didn’t understand why she was attracted to Shao Cixin, and she didn’t know whether these feelings were right or wrong.

But when she thought of Shao Cixin and her smile, she couldn’t ignore the joy in her heart, as if just the image of Shao Cixin was enough to make her feel satisfied.

She also thought about denying these feelings and avoiding them.

But when she casually opened the book in her hand, Shao Cixin’s name suddenly came into view. Each stroke, each character, was written by her own devices. It was as if the heavens had already arranged everything, and there was no escaping her fate.

Since she couldn’t escape, she might as well not try.

After struggling for a while, she gave in to this young love.

Wen Zhihan began to recklessly write the name that affected her heartbeat over and over again in her notebook.

When the tip of her pen landed on the paper, she seemed to be carving that person’s name onto her heart. She wanted to engrave Shao Cixin’s name into her very essence forever.

At that time, Wen Zhihan never mentioned this secret to anyone.

Then, after a fateful day at school, she lost her notebook.

After Wen Zhihan got in the car and checked her schoolbag and the supplies in her hand, she discovered that the book was missing.

All her true feelings were written down in that notebook. She didn’t want to be discovered or cause unnecessary trouble to Shao Cixin, so she ran back into the school.

She remembered that the book was still in her hand when the last bell rang, so she must have lost it on the way out of the school gate. She began her search at the entrance and worked her way back to the classroom.

But she never expected that she would encounter Shao Cixin.

The afterglow of the setting sun fell on the corridor along the window’s edge.

One stood at the front door and the other stood at the back door, both figures meeting each other’s eyes from a distance.

The evening breeze, neither fast nor slow, gently brushed against her ear, flicking over her hair.

Wen Zhihan noticed that Shao Cixin’s expression was unnatural, as if she had discovered something, and she avoided Wen Zhihan’s gaze awkwardly, unwilling to look into her eyes.

Faintly, Wen Zhihan began to feel uneasy in her heart.

“Senior Sister, um…” Shao Cixin spoke first, her hands behind her back, her eyes averted. “I-I-I will be a second year in high school next semester! That’s right! I heard that I was going to be moving into your classroom, so I came to take a look!

“The view is great, the air is fresh. It’s very good!

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave first. You’re busy, so there’s no need to send me off. Bye!”

After saying these words, Shao Cixin turned and ran away.

Her soft ponytail drew a beautiful arc in the wind.

Wen Zhihan: “…”

She didn’t even say anything.

She still wanted to talk to Shao Cixin…

A strong sense of unease prompted her to enter the classroom.

As soon as she raised her eyes, she saw a familiar notebook on her desk.

When she got closer, she saw that it was indeed her missing notebook, pressed tightly and neatly placed on her desk, as if to keep it from blowing away.

As her mind raced, Wen Zhihan picked up the book and opened it, only to find that a page was missing. Or rather, torn out.

—It was the page filled with Shao Cixin’s name.

Recalling Shao Cixin’s actions just then, Wen Zhihan instantly knew who the culprit was. At the same time, she felt frustrated.

This piece of paper was written in her absent-mindedness, but it was filled with her throbbing heart and undeclared love.

And yet it was torn away by Shao Cixin.

Not only that, but Shao Cixin even became embarrassed and stopped looking directly into her eyes.

—As if she was rejecting Wen Zhihan’s confession.

No.

There was no “as if.”

She had just been rejected.

Only a fool couldn’t understand what it meant to have so many of the same name written on a single piece of paper…

And from that day on, Shao Cixin became much more well-behaved. She never violated school rules again nor graced the pages of Wen Zhihan’s notebook.

…As if she didn’t want anything to do with Wen Zhihan anymore.

The interactions between them decreased, and they only ever spoke a handful of words to each other.

Knowing that Shao Cixin didn’t have any feelings for her, Wen Zhihan was afraid that Shao Cixin hated homosexuals and found them disgusting, so she didn’t dare to approach her.

Then Wen Zhihan entered her third year^[2] of high school, left the Disciplinary Committee, and started rigorously studying for the Gaokao^[3]. As a result, she began seeing Shao Cixin even less than she already did.

But she still couldn’t forget Shao Cixin.

The excitement of youth was tender and immature—but it was also unforgettable.

Shao Cixin may not be the best and most likable person in the world, but she was unique in Wen Zhihan’s heart.

From then on, Shao Cixin was like a ray of light that shone in the deepest part of Wen Zhihan’s heart, silently preserving the spot that belonged to her and her alone.

All the way up to the moment when she was shell-shocked to learn that Wen Yu’s girlfriend was Shao Cixin and then continuing into the present with their marriage contract today.

Wen Zhihan picked up her coffee again and looked out the window of the café at the blue sky.

“It’s been so long that Cixin must have forgotten about it.”

Shao Cixin, who didn’t want to be emotionally involved, would not have agreed to marry Wen Zhihan, let alone walk into her traps without any precaution, if she still remembered the previous incident.

From the beginning to now, Shao Cixin only regarded Wen Zhihan as a goddess who was capable of great deeds.

It was inevitable that Wen Zhihan was rejected. After all, Shao Cixin had said it herself: The high school version of Shao Cixin was at the peak of her arrogance. According to herself, no one in the world was worthy of her existence, which, of course, must have included Wen Zhihan.

Jiang Yanqing scratched his hand and looked at his wife. “Zhouzhou, you’ve already known this for a long time?”

Xu Zhouzhou nodded.

Although she knew about it, Xu Zhouzhou still encouraged Wen Zhihan to confess her love again, regardless of whether she would succeed or not.

Because…what if she could succeed?

It was a pity that Wen Zhihan was too focused on stability, unwilling to act rashly and unwittingly disturb the one she loved.

Jiang Yanqing rubbed his chin again.

This was no laughing matter. Their friend could seriously lose her wife.

But after thinking about it carefully, he somehow felt that this was not too serious of a problem either.

In high school, he also had brothers who secretly liked Shao Cixin, their junior sister. Without exception, they were all rejected, so this was obviously not a case of Wen Zhihan being isolated.

But it was different now.

Jiang Yanqing had watched the variety show, and Shao Cixin seemed to like their Han Han very much! She even enjoyed being dependent on her!

“I think…” Jiang Yanqing opened his lips and said, “…that then was then and now is now. Just because she rejected you in the past doesn’t mean she will reject you in the future!”

Wen Zhihan said nothing, silently stirring the coffee in her hand.

She didn’t know, she wasn’t sure. The matter of Shao Cixin was as risky as investing, and she could lose everything if she wasn’t careful.

Jiang Yanqing thought for a moment, and his mind suddenly opened. He boldly hypothesized, “Is it possible that…at the time, she didn’t even realize it was your confession?”

Wen Zhihan raised her eyes and looked at him.

Jiang Yanqing said rationally, “Your wife’s brain is wired differently from other people’s, so you can’t use normal logic to explain her actions!”

Wen Zhihan opened and closed her mouth.

The more Jiang Yanqing talked, the more he believed in his reasoning.

He clapped his hands and said, “Don’t say anything. I really think I might be onto something! Damn, so that means you weren’t rejected, and you missed her for so many years!”

Wen Zhihan said, “Regardless of whether she understood it as a confession or not, I still would’ve been rejected.”

After a moment of deep contemplation, she stood up and picked up her phone. “After all, the person she was at that time could not have liked anyone.”

Xu Zhouzhou’s eyes followed Wen Zhihan as she asked, “Where are you going?”

Wen Zhihan smiled at her friend. “I’m going to see if the person I like has ever rejected me.”

In the evening, Wen Zhihan asked Shao Cixin to have dinner with her. After some thought, they decided to go eat hot pot.

Neither of them liked spicy food, so they ordered a Yuanyang hot pot^[4], choosing a bone base on one side and a tomato base on the other.

They sat in a small private room with the window open. The soup began boiling in the pot, and its sweet aroma slowly wafted through the chamber.

Shao Cixin had been on break for a few days now, so she dared to eat more. She used the serving chopsticks to pick out the bamboo rolls. Then she added the glass noodles to the broth and took out the stir-fried beef Wen Zhihan liked to eat. She put the beef in Wen Zhihan’s bowl, served her soup, and looked at her eagerly.

“Our President Wen has been working hard these days. Please eat more.”

“Okay.”

Wen Zhihan smiled and accepted Shao Cixin’s care. She picked up her spoon and gently stirred her soup bowl.

After she thought for a moment, she casually opened her mouth and said, “Cixin, do you still remember when you tore a page out of my notebook in high school?”

Shao Cixin’s hand holding her chopsticks came to a stop.

Wen Zhihan didn’t raise her eyes. She slowly took a sip of her soup.

She wanted to wait for Shao Cixin’s answer before she looked up. Otherwise, she didn’t know what kind of expression she should use to gaze at Shao Cixin.

Although she had already thought of countless ways to escape…

Shao Cixin rubbed the tip of her nose.

“You still remember this? I thought you didn’t know I was the one who tore it out…”

Wen Zhihan’s hand froze—Shao Cixin still remembered.

Then she heard Shao Cixin say, “I know what I did was wrong, but I couldn’t help it. It was a whole page of names. If you turned it in to the Political and Educational Affairs Office, I was a dead woman standing!”

Wen Zhihan: “?”

Shao Cixin gazed down at the soup in front of her and said frankly, “At the time, I had just repaired the relationship with my dad and promised my mom not to cause any trouble, but you wrote down a whole page of my name.

“It’s a whole page! I even suspected that you were taking revenge on me in the name of public interest^[5]!

“Since I didn’t want to make my mom angry or disappoint my father, I tore off that page. I knew it was wrong…but I just tore that one page. I didn’t tear anything else, I left the rest untouched!”

Wen Zhihan: “…”

She said, “So the reason why you calmed down and stopped violating school rules…it’s because you repaired your relationship with Director Shao and started to behave yourself?”

“That’s right,” Shao Cixin said as if it was obvious. “If I’m not angry with him, then there’s no reason to be untoward. Otherwise, my mom will get mad. She’s not in good health, so I don’t want to make her unhappy.”

Her rebellion in high school originated from her resentment towards her father’s absence in her childhood. By acting out, she was expressing her dissatisfaction and grievances.

Fortunately, Shao Heng and Lu Lan reprimanded her and tolerated her with care, helping her understand that her father loved her more than anyone else and that he wanted to stay with her for as long as possible.

Shao Cixin was not an unreasonable person. The knot in her heart was unraveled, so her resentment naturally dissipated.

Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, she had no reason to keep causing trouble, so of course she learned to behave.

But she really didn’t expect that she had left such a brilliant record in Wen Zhihan’s pages.

She accidentally picked up the notebook when she left school.

Wen Zhihan’s name and class were written in beautiful handwriting on the cover.

Recorded inside were the names of the students who violated school rules and regulations. The characters were written neatly and beautifully, which was very pleasing to the eye.

—But it would’ve been more pleasing if her name was not included as well.

And what shocked her the most was that there was actually a whole page with only her name written on it.

The names on the page were not written neatly, as if Wen Zhihan had been recording the word “正^[6]” over and over again.

Every name Wen Zhihan wrote represented a violation of school rules and regulations, and her name filled a whole page. It was simply too frightening!

If this entire page of names was handed over at such a critical juncture when her relationship with her parents just eased…It would be disastrous.

So, with her head pounding and her heart shaking, Shao Cixin thoughtlessly tore off the page.

Shao Cixin knew that she was at fault and that what she did was wrong, so her attitude was extremely good.

Even though the incident happened a long time ago, she would explain her actions if Wen Zhihan asked. After all, it was she who tore up someone else’s notebook…

Sitting upright, she carefully took in Wen Zhihan’s expression and said softly, “It’s my fault for tearing up your notebook without permission. Do you want me to…buy you a new one?

“I’ll make sure it’s exactly the same. I’ll even go back to our high school to buy you a copy?”

Wen Zhihan: “…”

She was dumbfounded.

Wen Zhihan, Wen Zhihan, you are so stupid.

How could you forget that this is a little girl who doesn’t play by the rules?

She didn’t even realize it was a confession—she never once rejected you.

Wen Zhihan had mixed feelings after hearing Shao Cixin’s explanation, but she mostly felt happy. While it was good that it wasn’t a rejection, she still didn’t know what her present-day Shao Cixin was thinking.

After observing the person in front of her and contemplating for a moment, Wen Zhihan decided to first take things slowly and test Shao Cixin’s attitude.

Time passed quickly and Post-Marriage Love Diary, which was scheduled to film eight episodes in total, had already aired six.

There were all kinds of CP videos on the Internet. Serious ones, cute ones, any ones you could think of.

One of the videos was titled “Calling My Wife,” and the main character was Shao Cixin.

As the name suggests, the video was a cute fan compilation of all the scenes where Shao Cixin said “wife.”

All the footage was from Post-Marriage Love Diary.

Having nothing to do that day, Wen Zhihan sat in her living room and clicked on the video.

At the beginning of the compilation, Shao Cixin pulled on her hand and said, “Let’s watch a variety show.” Then cute, cheerful BGM music began playing, and Shao Cixin started calling her “wife.”

Standing, sitting, running, lying down—Shao Cixin passionately called her “wife” in all kinds of strange positions.

After Shao Cixin said “wife” for the last time, Wen Zhihan finally responded with a gentle “I’m here.” Then she walked over and hugged Shao Cixin.

The video ended on the last second when they embraced each other.

The comments immediately approved of the CP video, saying that it was so sweet it made them go crazy.

—Ahhhhh, so cute! So cute!

—I don’t know who to envy right now.

—Wengu Zhixin, may you experience a hundred years of prosperity!!!

—President Wen, go cuddle her and kiss her until her lips are raw!

—Baby Xin! Mommy’s cute little dog! Take advantage of Wen Zhihan and kiss her!

The sounds coming from the speakers also attracted Shao Cixin’s attention.

Coincidentally, she had also watched this fan video, but she never expected Wen Zhihan to watch it too.

Feeling a strong sense of curiosity, Shao Cixin slipped into her cotton slippers and approached Wen Zhihan from behind. Then she saw Wen Zhihan raise her finger, giving the video a like and even throwing in two coins.

Shao Cixin: “?”

Was she hallucinating?

Wen Zhihan stood. As soon as she turned around, she saw Shao Cixin.

She knew that Shao Cixin had captured her every move just now.

It was perfect. She wanted to let her see them.

Having achieved her goal, Wen Zhihan calmly turned off her tablet. She smiled slightly and said, “Cixin is very cute.”

Shao Cixin watched Wen Zhihan walk back into their bedroom, her eyes blinking in confusion as she replayed the contents of the video in her mind.

It seemed like…it was the video where she repeatedly called her “wife?”

Wen Zhihan actually liked Shao Cixin calling her “wife??”

In an instant, an intense and exhilarating thought went through Shao Cixin’s head—

Wen Zhihan…Could she have fallen in love with me?

The author (热到昏厥) has something to say:

Hahaha, that’s right, Xin Xin didn’t even think it was a confession.

As mentioned in a previous chapter, when they were still in high school, Shao Cixin and Liang Xuefei eliminated the correct answer in seconds. Haha, didn’t expect it, did she!

^[1] Xu Zhouzhou is referring to the Chinese idiom “哪壶不开提哪壶” (nǎ hú bù kāi tí nǎ hú) which literally translates as “to pick the kettle that is not boiling.” It is a metaphor for when someone is saying what should remain private. I guess the English equivalent would be “airing someone’s dirty laundry?”

^[2] I should probably note here that, in China, middle school is four years long while high school is three, which is flipped from something like the American education system (which I grew up in). So Shao Cixin and Wen Zhihan are one year apart, and Wen Zhihan was “rejected” when she was around 16-17 and Shao Cixin around 15-16.

^[3] The Gaokao should be pretty familiar to most readers. It’s China’s famously cut-throat government-sponsored college entrance exam, which every high school’s graduating seniors take at the end of their third year (aka. their last year).

^[4] A picture of yuanyang hotpot:

^[5] See: Footnote 1 in Chapter 71.

^[6]“正” is a common character for people to write when they are bored or passing the time. This is because it’s simple five-stroke structure can be used to “count down” how long someone has been in some place, like writing tally marks over and over again.

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